LOS ANGELES >> The Kings had a different look when the puck dropped Thursday at Staples Center, with a new face behind the mask in goal. Then they had a really different look when they faced off with the Carolina Hurricanes to start the second period, after a dizzying lineup shuffle.

ANAHEIM >> Thirteen goals allowed in two games would do more than raise red flags. Try alarm bells sounding. The Ducks have done just that and while a 6-5 comeback win in a shootout over Carolina on Wednesday left them with some good feelings about finishing off a rare rally, their recent defensive work isn’t anything to be proud about.

ANAHEIM >> Logan Shaw’s first goal with the Ducks came toward the end of an 8-3 rout that will sit comfortably among their worst performances of a long season. Chances are that goal on Sunday in Calgary might only be memorable to him.

ANAHEIM >> Everyone seems to be contributing offensively for the Ducks more than the two you most expect. And then it happened for one of them when they absolutely needed it. Corey Perry fired a one-time shot past Carolina goalie Cam Ward and a game that seemed lost was shockingly tied.

ANAHEIM >> No team had finished with the NHL’s top power play and penalty kill for 21 years until they did it last season so expecting the Ducks to duplicate that a year later is an unreasonable request.

EL SEGUNDO >> They arrived by the thousands, starting in April, to the remote grasslands of North Dakota, armed with sleeping bags, backpacks and a will to win. They pitched tents, erected yurts and teepees and settled in for what’s become a long fight against a determined opponent.

CALGARY, Alberta — The first one that got by him was a shot Jonathan Bernier otherwise stops nine times out of 10. Sure, it was Johnny Gaudreau who fired the shot and it was the first game back from injury for Calgary’s star winger, so Scotiabank Saddledome was particularly lit up at that moment.

LOS ANGELES >> The Kings appeared to have the man coach Darryl Sutter called “the best goaltender in the world in any situation” at their mercy Sunday at Staples Center. They scored four times in the second period and built a one-goal lead over the Montreal Canadiens.

CALGARY, Alberta >> At some point, it had to end. All streaks eventually do. The Ducks still have their Honda Center streak over the Calgary Flames rolling, it now at 24 games. But they also hadn’t lost to them at all since Game 3 of the 2015 Western Conference semifinals.

CALGARY, Alberta >> Morning skates once were never part of hockey. Scotty Bowman would make it part of the sport’s lexicon as the legendary coach had his Montreal Canadiens doing drills on the game days.

EDMONTON, Alberta >> Bruce Boudreau and the Ducks reconnected in a small way on Saturday as the former Ducks coach and his Minnesota Wild were at Rogers Place to practice and prepare for their game against the Oilers on Sunday.

EDMONTON, Alberta >> Before it went through several name changes to satisfy its corporate investors, Edmonton’s main home for hockey was called Northlands Coliseum and it was home for a time to a dynasty.

LOS ANGELES — The San Jose Sharks opened a three-point lead in the Pacific Division on Wednesday night. They haven’t escaped the posse. Anaheim, Edmonton and the Kings will be right there, probably until April.

Ondrej Kase scored his first NHL goal, John Gibson made 27 saves and the Ducks beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 on Thursday night. Jakob Silfverberg and Andrew Cogliano also scored for Anaheim (12-8-4), which has won three in a row.

LOS ANGELES >> Peter Budaj turned 17, shortly after he got to Toronto. “No goalie equipment,” said Michael Futa, his first coach. No grasp of English, either. He played occasionally, on a bad junior team, on a small North American rink, with not much to comfort him but the other end of a telephone.

ANAHEIM >> A look at their next three games is all the Ducks need to pay full attention. Motivational speeches won’t be required. The Ducks fit in a tidy practice at Honda Center before leaving for western Canada and an accompanying swing through Pacific Division foes.

LOS ANGELES >> The Kings had three days to rest, recover and prepare to face the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday at Staples Center. They had plenty of time to formulate a plan to knock off the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last spring and also defeated them in their season-opening game Oct.

ANAHEIM >> Rickard Rakell and Cam Fowler scored goals and John Gibson made 39 saves to outduel Montreal’s Carey Price as the Ducks won their second straight, beating the Canadiens 2-0 on Tuesday night.

ANAHEIM >> Emerging from a collision with San Jose goaltender Martin Jones, Ryan Garbutt only knew that he got a shot off. Otherwise, the winger was waiting and waiting like the rest of his Ducks teammates, the Sharks and everyone else in an increasingly impatient arena.

ANAHEIM >> Jonathan Bernier has given the Ducks good goaltending in his starts and the team, in turn, has been supporting him with enough offense that he’s won in four of his last five times he has had the net.

LOS ANGELES >> Peter Budaj made his 20th consecutive appearance in the Kings’ net Saturday, when they played host to the Chicago Blackhawks at Staples Center. When his streak, the longest of his 11-season, comes to an end is anyone’s guess.

LOS ANGELES >> Jeff Carter helped the Kings find another way to win Saturday at Staples Center. He had the puck and the game on his stick a little more than a minute into overtime, and he skated to the top of the left faceoff circle before unleashing a shot that hit the back of the net.

SAN JOSE >> In a forgettable week that’s been either causal actions of their own doing or forces beyond their control, the Ducks finally got things to go their way and salvaged it with an important Pacific Division win.

SAN JOSE >> The makeup of forward lines can change on a coach’s whim but the Ducks have learned that Randy Carlyle is much more willing to keep his top units together with the thought that chemistry between the threesomes will be easier to attain.

ANAHEIM >> Push aside the fact that Black Friday for the Ducks has not been a good Friday for a while or that it is the Chicago Blackhawks that have made it so. In this one, the Ducks saw the place they need to get to as a team.

ANAHEIM >> Their games have been lacking and glaringly so, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry obvious these days only in that they continue to blend in. Friday, the decorated duo was shut out again as the Ducks fell behind again to a short-handed opponent again before furiously rebounding again only to come up empty.

ANAHEIM >> Being at home on the Thanksgiving holiday leaves the Ducks feeling full but sickness has come to follow the day after. A two decade-old franchise can use traditions and one for the Ducks has become hosting a rare matinee game on what millions now call Black Friday.

Pop quiz, hotshot. You are representing a billion-dollar franchise to an entire generation. You have mere seconds to craft 140 characters for millions of people awaiting your proclamation, and they better form something captivating.

LOS ANGELES — Suddenly, the Kings are starting to look like themselves again. Or something close to it, anyway. After all, team captain Anze Kopitar rejoined the Kings’ lineup for their game Wednesday against the New York Islanders at Staples Center, after a five-game absence because of a hand/wrist injury suffered Nov.

LOS ANGELES >> One bolt of lightning wasn’t going to do it for the Kings on Wednesday at Staples Center. They needed more, much more, in order to defeat the New York Islanders in team captain Anze Kopitar’s return to the lineup after a five-game absence because of an injury.

ANAHEIM >> Corey Perry ultimately arrives at the same place regardless of how he starts his seasons, so it figures that the Ducks winger can be left alone to get himself out of the current goal drought he is in.

ANAHEIM >> Popular belief might have it that whenever the Kings and Ducks intersect in the long NHL schedule, it is a bruising, drag-it-out contest destined to need more than 60 minutes of regulation to decide who wins.

ANAHEIM >> In his first season with Randy Carlyle as his coach, Rickard Rakell is finding his usage in the Ducks’ lineup is a two-pronged approach. Want to deepen your lineup? Have the skilled forward on the third line to team with another in veteran Antoine Vermette.

EL SEGUNDO >> Coach Darryl Sutter arrived at the Kings’ practice Friday to find two goaltenders on the ice. Jeff Zatkoff said he was ready for whatever assignment Sutter had in store for him this weekend after Jack Campbell was re-assigned to the Ontario Reign, the Kings’ AHL team.